For Who You Love
by malloriesmelody
Summary: When Alice Donovan accidentally activates an artifact, everything changes. One mistake completely changes her life. Alice has to go back to before she was born and warn her mother about the accident. But what happens when Alice tells her mother, and Claudia just doesn't want to listen?
1. In the Beginning

You know, it's funny how much you would risk for the people you love. My mom had told me stories of how she helped protect the world from powerful artifacts that could harm people, describing how she had saved my Uncle Joshua using Rheticus' compass, helped Aunt Myka save a bunch of wrestlers, almost getting herself killed in the process, and even bringing Uncle Steve back to life. These had all started out as stories, that mom would slip in while we were spending time together, and with my love of fairy tales, I loved to hear them. Little did I know, they were not fairy tales but very real memories that my mom had lived through. When I was 8, mom took me to her job for "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day". It was then that I saw the warehouse for the first time, and started to experience my own journey, into the world of endless wonder.

I was born on January 2, 2015 in the Warehouse, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces, with bright brown eyes and brown/black hair. As far as I've been told, I wasn't made from an artifact, though I wasn't quite planned either. Mom has never told me who my father is, and though I'm curious, I've never pushed the subject. It just being mom and I has worked out quite nicely, though we've never been truly alone with Uncle Steve, Aunt Myka, Uncle Pete, and everyone else being around at one point or another. Mom insisted I got part of myself from all of them. She said my kind heart came from Uncle Steve, my seriousness that came in dire situations from Aunt Myka, my attitude, smarts (with technology and otherwise) and, most importantly, my good taste in music came from her. She wasn't quite sure how Uncle Pete influenced me, and kind of thought it was better that he didn't.

I never needed a babysitter after that first day at the warehouse because I insisted on going to work with mom. Her being Caretaker of the warehouse meant that I could roam freely, as long as I didn't touch artifacts without purple gloves, always reported if anything was strange and never took anything out of the warehouse. Ever. Though she encouraged me to follow any dreams I had, whether it be to go to college or to stay and be a warehouse agent, she didn't want me getting into any danger, so I followed her rules. Until one day, when I screwed up. From there, everything spiraled out of control.


	2. A Trip Changed It All

On May 23, 2031, I was helping out mom with inventory, cataloging artifacts and keeping files up to date. I wasn't wearing purple gloves because all I needed to do was write some stuff on a clipboard and then I'd go to the office to type everything into the system while I kept an eye on my farnsworth for calls from mom. She had given me her first farnsworth, black with gold detailing, still truly beautiful and working great even though it was years old.

I was at the very end of my shelf when it happened. I still get mad at myself for being so stupid, so careless. I was 16 years old, and had been working in the warehouse since I was 8, which made me wonder how I could have ever been so careless. Mother Shipton's Tarot Cards, which had been snagged, bagged and tagged by Uncle Steve and Uncle Pete years before, back in 2014, were the last things on the shelf. I tripped over my own two feet, and my hands tried to find something to catch my fall. Unfortunately, that thing was those cards on the shelf, and they scattered. Normally, scattering cards isn't that bad. You just pick them up and things are back to normal. These weren't normal though, and I quickly scooped them up, praying that the universe hadn't counted that as dealing the cards, knowing that if it had, something would happen and wouldn't stop until a goal had been reached. My breathing stopped when I got to the last card, the only one facing up, knowing that things were about to go from bad to worse.

I opened my farnsworth, calling mom. My brain was screaming to panic, but I forced myself to stay calm. After all, warehouse agents do not panic, but instead solve the problem.

"Yes Alice?"

I could tell that mom was working, most likely with reagents because of how formal she sounded. When it was just her and I, she talked just like she was my best friend. I tried to keep my voice level during what I said next, not wanting to make a up huge deal out of everything, when it could have just been a coincidence that a card turned up.

"We might have a problem." I told her, my voice staying steady in spite of my shaking hands.

I heard her excuse herself from the meeting she was in and walk out to the hallway. "What kind of problem?"

"This kind..." I said quietly before turning the farnsworth so she could see that there on the floor was one lonely tarot card that predicted my death.


End file.
